No Sales Tax
The MINELAB MANTICORE... What We Know So Far UPDATED AGAIN!
The MINELAB MANTICORE
DEEP POWER, LIGHTENING SPEED, DEADLY ACCURATE
CLICK HERE FOR THE MINELAB MANTICORE USER INSTRUCTION MANUAL!
KNOWN FEATURES:
1) Extremely collapsable, similar to the GPX 6000.
2) NO GPS Technology-- SORRY!
3) Better algorithms for discrimination.
4) 2-D animated screen that helps you better see what's going on with targets, and help you make better discriminate targets.
5) Better Audio.
6) Minelab Manticore Price $1599 USD.
7) Multi-Selectable frequency. With broader spectrum of frequencies than the Equinox.
8) More power than the Equinox in every way. 50% more power going out the coil.
9) Weighs less than the Equinox, with carbon fiber shaft.
10) Waterproof 5 meters (more than the Equinox).
11) Equivalent (or possibly better?) POWER to the CTX 3030.
12) Also offered are AFTERMARKET 8 X 12" inch and 15 X 12" inch Elliptical Coils.
13) Faster response time (recovery speed) than the Equinox.
14) Stronger Coil Lugs & arm cuff. New camlocks on the shaft.
15) Continuous software updates.
16) Extremely flexible but robust plastic arm rest, that slides up and down with the push of a button. Flexible yet strong plastic on coil attachment as well to avoid breakage issues.
17) 100 TID segments (The Equinox only has 39).
18) Lots of audio options, continuous audio with many tone break options and more.
19) Minelab Manticore Search Modes
Choose from ten customized discrimination programs
All-Terrain General
All-Terrain Fast
All Terrain Low Conductors
All Terrain High Conductors
All Terrain Trash Reject
Beach General
Beach Low Conductors
Beach Deep
Beach Surf & Seawater
Goldfield General
20) The Manticore’s newest audio features Normal, Rich, Overdrive, Enhanced, and Continuous Audio settings.
The head engineer of Minelab stated that the Manticore uses "Polyphonic Audio" which he says is "the ability to hear more than one sound at the same time. This really helps you hear ferrous/nonferrous signals simultaneously rather than the signals jumping and changing". This should make for a very unique and interesting audio experience.
Normal is most like the familiar Equinox audio.
Rich
Overdrive
Enhanced gives more audio modulation to smaller targets to help you discern deeper, smaller objects. Suppresses EMI & ground chatter.
Continuous uses VCO audio (voltage controlled oscillator). VCO’s are associated with frequency modulation, but can also affect the way the ‘pitch’ of the sound is adjusted. This continuous pitch mode is associated with the Gold mode on the Manticore.
21) TONES The Manticore has 1, 2, 5, 50, and customizable tone volume and tone pitch mode. I'm very disappointed they did not add 3 and 4 tones, but you will be able to turn it into a 3 or 4 tone machine in the customizable mode, it's just a pain in the butt!
22) Iron Audio/Volume
23) Iron Bias is now called Ferrous Bias. A good target will appear in the middle line of the 2-D screen while iron will appear lower or higher. Using Ferrous Bias may result in blocking out certain desirable targets as it is a type of 'notch' discrimination.
24) Recovery Speed 0-7 (They added zero for those who sweep very slow and want extra depth).
25) Ground Balancing the Manticore might not do you any good says the lead Minelab engineer. He states that ground balance may help you get a little more raw depth, but at that depth you don't even know what your target is (fringe depth). Ground balance he says does not help with discrimination though.
26) The Manticore headphones are essentially the same headphones they send with the GPX 6000, wireless, low-latency. They come with an optional cable, which is more robust than the one that comes with the Equinox, and it screws in so it's more secure as well.
27) Manticore Battery Life- 9 hours.
The Minelab Manticore Control Box
Looking at the graph on the control box the first impression I get is it looks like FBS discrimination. As noted by the lead engineer of Minelab, there is an animated 2-D screen for better helping discriminating targets.
We know from the interview with Minelab's lead engineer that they took the best elements from the CTX 3030 and the Equinox and then added to those to create a whole new machine.
The CTX and Etrac both have a graph that looks similar to this in which FE (ferrous) and CO (conductive) targets are displayed.
Essentially the line in the middle of the screen represents the most non-ferrous good targets. As targets drift farther from that line, they are more likely to be ferrous (iron).
FBS, or, Full Band Spectrum, was patented by Minelab. FBS uses a patented algorithm of multiple frequencies. A broad range of 28 frequencies are transmitted from 1.5 to 100kHz. Supposedly this allows for more accurate target identification, increased sensitivity, and improved depth.
SMF, or Simultaneous Multi-Frequency, means the metal detector emits more than one frequency at a time from the coil. SMF is more of a marketing term than anything else.
DEEP POWER, LIGHTENING SPEED, DEADLY ACCURATE
When you break this very bold claim down, it really just amounts to mating a Minelab CTX 3030 with an Equinox. The CTX had extremely accurate target ID-- and that was created over 10 years ago! So it is easy to believe they have improved upon that, and they simply combined the software and gave it a ramp-up.
The Minelab Manticore Coil appears to be a new configuration. Some users even compared it to the Nokta Makro Anfibio Coil, and referenced how incredibly deep that machine goes.
However, this could just be extra plastic aesthetics to make it look more 'fierce' for marketing purposes.
How Deep Does the Minelab Manticore Go?
The head engineer of Minelab stated: "We upped the battery capacity to convert to more depth, and put 50% more power into the ground. In terms of depth this equates to 1-1.2" inches of depth increase (over the Equinox) on some targets, and even deeper on others like gold jewelry, bracelets, chains" etc.. The Manticore will be at least equal in depth to the CTX 3030 if not deeper.
Does the Minelab Manticore have GPS?
Unfortunately not...
Minelab Manticore Price
The Price has been confirmed: $1599 USD.
Minelab discontinued the ETRAC. The CTX has been out way over 10-years, and the Minelab Equinox does not have the luxury features that a high end machine like the CTX offered in its day.
For the price-point, the XP Deus II offers many more features than the Equinox. That is not saying it is a better machine, only that they put more into it to be able to drive the price higher. I'm personally disappointed with the XP Deus II headphones, and the way the control module attaches. I am however, pleased with the performance for the price.
The Multi-Frequency/Single Frequency war is upon us!
What I love is that companies like Minelab are pushed by Nokta and XP to get off the couch and keep innovating. The question is, are they going in the right direction?
I would say NO. If you are an engineer you would already know what I am about to say...
The processors of metal detectors are INSANELY WEAK compared to the processor in your CELL PHONE. So then why haven't metal detecting companies just created a cell phone app that can be used while your cell phone is mounted to a nice lightweight shaft, and communicates wirelessly to a coil?
My guess would be greed. It's really that simple. If such an app were created by a really talented group of engineers, it would put current metal detector performance to shame. The learning algorithms, processing speed, and technology you can utilize from a cell phone like an iphone is light years beyond what is currently available.
I still to this day have not seen a single company mention the connection I discovered: While toggling between single and multi-frequency, a user can discriminate between trash and treasure more easily, and more accurately discern what is under their coil.
Think about that. No need for notch discrimination or iron bias or bottle cap reject-- you can discern that all by yourself just by toggling between single and multi frequency!
So if I were making a cell phone app, I would utilize a learning algorithm that automatically toggled between single and multi-frequencies. After testing many types of ferrous and non-ferrous targets in multiple settings, the learning algorithm would begin to be able to do the work for you, and learn things that even you missed!
Unfortunately with cell phone technology at the forefront, Metal detectors would have to be sold for less money, and then greedy corporate CEO's would not get their paychecks. So the future of metal detecting stays trapped in a box so to speak.
I am and always will be the type of person to jump right out of the box and challenge the system, that is the only way to innovate and make progress in my experience.